When Erica Egyed first saw the online pictures of the charred Garibaldi Highlands Elementary School playground, it felt like she was punched in the stomach.
Early Sunday morning June 7, police and fire were called out to the blaze at the playground, which destroyed the slide and much of the metal structure.
“It is just so heartbreaking,” Egyed said. “That should have lasted generations and generations.”
Egyed was a driving force behind the building of the playground about 11 years ago.
“My kids were attending the school and I noticed that there was really outdated equipment that they were talking about ripping down,” Egyed said.
Egyed fundraised “like crazy” for a new playground for many months, she said. Thanks to a $27,000 grant from Whistler Blackcomb Foundation and an additional $25,000 raised in the community, the playground costs were covered.
Putting the playground up was a community effort, according to Egyed. She said so many people and businesses pitched in they were able to put the structure up over a weekend.
Egyed said she can’t bring herself to go look at the remains of the damaged playground just yet.
“I might cry,” she said.
Garibaldi Highlands Elementary school principal Paul Lorette said though the vandalism has been hard for the students and staff, the way the children have rallied has been comforting.
“They were disappointed, some kids were sad, some were angry, a range of emotions, it was quite touching, I had a couple of quite young primary children come to me and offer a little plastic bag of change,” he said. The children told him they wanted to help pay for a new playground.
Lorette said the playground is important not only to the school community but to the neighbourhood.
No charges laid in playground arson, yet
“There’s the trail, several playground areas so you know we have a lot of families who come use it on the weekends and their preschoolers enjoy it,” he said.
Lorette said next steps aren’t entirely clear. An evaluation has to be done on the structure and the insurance company is involved. There is some hope part of the structure can be salvaged, he said.
“Our kids have been asking those questions because they are very big on recycling and taking care of the environment,” he said.
The students will be involved in any decisions about the site. “We’ll try to build into it some kind of a learning opportunity for our kids whether it’s doing some planning or doing some surveys of what kids would like to see for options for play,” Lorette said.
Four teens confessed to burning the playground, according to Squamish RCMP, but no charges had been laid as of press time.
